The frail NHS is creaking under the strains of Coalition reforms with patients waiting longer for treatments, thousands of staff losing their jobs and private firms carving up services.

Experts delivered a damning verdict on the first year of the Government’s wholesale changes – and branded them a “dog’s dinner”.

And leading specialists warned that moves to privatise more services would hit the most vulnerable in society.

The NHS public approval rating has plummeted from 70% pre-election to 58% since the Coalition took office and dismantled key parts of the service.

Its aim was to streamline services, give power to clinicians and encourage new ideas from the private sector.

But the result has been the loss of 17,700 nurses’ jobs, a 70% increase in sick patients waiting to be admitted through A&E departments and a £3billion bill for making the changes. The latest policy, which will transfer budgets to groups of GPs, comes into force today.

Former NHS manager Roy Lilley said: “The NHS has soldiered on in what has been a very difficult year. But it has essentially been de-nationalised. We will see more private firms involved.

“GP groups controlling budgets can only add to the confusion that already exists. It is a dog’s dinner.”